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CHILDREN OF THE WORLD SERIES 


STORY OF 

LITTLE JAN 

THE DUTCH BOY 


BY 

HELEN L. CAMPBELL 

w 



EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 
BOSTON 

New York Chicago San Francisco 


LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Receive# 

FEB 9 1906 

rt 

' COPY B. 












o 


Copyrighted 

By EDUCATIONAL TUBLISIIING COMPANY 





STORY OF LITTLE JAN 

THE DUTCH BOY 


A certain wise man once said, “ There are 
many strange things under the sun”; and 
surely the land of the Dutch must be one of 
these strange things, for in no other land could 
you find such odd people, with so many 
strange ways. Even the country itself is like 
no other land under the sun. 

If you were to start from New York, and 
sail three thousand six hundred miles north- 
east, you would at last reach the great North 
Sea, or German Ocean, which washes the 
western and northern shores of Holland. 

This strange little Dutch-land is not a very 


6 


LITTLE JAN 


large country. It is about as large as the 
States of Massachusetts and Connecticut, and 
divided into eleven small states called prov- 
inces. 

Besides these, there are Dutch colonies in 
the East Indies, the West Indies, South 
America and Africa. 

The eastern part of the State of New York 
was once a Dutch colony. It was then called 
New Amsterdam. 

In the eleven provinces of Holland, there 
are about five million people; and there are 
more large cities than in any other land of 
its size. 

If you could fly across the ocean, and look 
down upon this country as the storks do, when 
they come flying home from Egypt in the 
spring, you would surely say, “What a strange 
land! Why, all the land is water!” and you 


LITTLE JAN 


might say just as truly, “Why, all the water is 
land ! ” for most of the water was land many 
years ago, and the greater part of the land was 
water, before the Dutch pumped and drained 
it into the ocean. 

Instead of fences, there are little ditches 
around the fields, even around the gardens. 
Nearly all the roads are rivers and canals; 
water, water, rippling and sparkling every- 
where; just the place for frogs, water-beetles, 
dragon-flies, and little green water-snakes. 
That is what the storks think about it. 

Then the windmills ! Always, and every- 
where, windmills — their great arms whirling 
as they pump the water from the land into the 
canals, and from there into the great sea. 

You think as you look at them that Hol- 
land must be a great sponge, ready to fill 
with water, and sink to the bottom of the 


8 


LITTLE JAN 



ocean, if the windmills did not keep it squeezed 
dry. 

A land of wind and water; for the water is 
everywhere, and the wind always blows. 


WINDMILLS IN HOLLAND 

Really the wind must feel obliged to blow, 
for it would never do to leave those rows of 
windmills standing with idle arms, and never 
a breeze to set them whirling. 



LITTLE JAN 


9 


But sometimes the wind forgets that it has 
work to do in this “ Land of Windmills/’ 
It comes romping and racing in, across the 
wide sea, blowing great gales, and sending the 
waves sweeping up through the rivers and 
canals. The dykes are broken down and over- 
flow the meadows and farms, burying vil- 
lages so deep that not even the tops of the 
steeples can be seen, and drowning thousands 
of people. 

And this is just what little Jan Van Paalen 
was thinking about, as he stood upon the 
dyke just above his father’s cottage, looking 
far out across the waters of the great Zuyder 
Zee. 

“ Isn’t he a queer looking little fellow?” 
said Father Stork, balancing himself on one 
leg, and looking down at Mother Stork, sitting 
patiently on her nest. 



10 


ENTRANCE TO THE ZUYDER ZEE 





LITTLE JAN 


11 


“ I never notice any children except my 
own,” said Mother Stork. 

“But just look,” said Father Stork; “see 
those great wide trousers, buttoned to such a 
short waist ; then his legs are covered with 
thick, woolly stockings ; and, iny dear, did you 
notice what he has on his feet? We never 
dress our children like that. Their feet and 
long red legs are always bare, ready to step 
into the water, if a nice fat frog or a squirming 
little water-snake comes along.” 

“ Don’t waste time thinking of it,” said 
Mother Stork; “but go bring a fat frog for 
my supper, if that boy has not frightened them 
all away, throwing sticks into the water.” 

Father Stork started at once, snapping his 
bill fiercely at little Jan, as he flew over his 
head. But Jan did not hear him; he was 
watching the white-capped waves come hurry- 





•sf 





SCENE IN HOLLAND 


12 



LITTLE JA.N 


13 


in g along, tumbling over one another in rough 
play, or, as if in haste to try their strength 
against the great bank of clay, timber, and 
stones, upon which the little boy stood. 

Slap ! Swish ! Slap ! He could hear them 
beating against the great flat stones which 
paved the sloping sides of the dyke, trying to 
find a crevice where the tiniest wavelet could 
creep through. 

But the great dykes, stretching far away, 
along the shore, were strong and solid ; for 
the Dutch have been fighting the cruel, treach- 
erous sea for hundreds of years, and have 
learned how to defend and shield themselves 
from its power. 

There are no stones in Holland, but Dutch 
ships brought from the stone quarries of Nor- 
way great slabs of granite to pave their dykes. 

There are no forests in Holland ; but from 


14 


LITTLE JAN 



the forests of Germany the lumbermen bring 
great rafts of logs bound together, to make 
timbers for the dykes; and even the clay and 


NORTH HOLLAND DYKES 

sand of which these great banks were made 
were brought many miles along the rivers and 
canals in boats. 

Jan had been reading about the Zuyder Zee 


LITTLE JAN 


15 


in school that very afternoon, and as soon as 
he reached home he had climbed the steps to 
the top of the dyke to look at it. 

Far to the east, its waves were rippling* and 
shining in the afternoon sunlight, just as if it 
had always had a right to the place it occu- 
pied ; yet Jan had read that very day how, 
more than six hundred years ago, there were 
broad meadows and fertile farms lying beside 
a pleasant river, and pretty villages built on 
the banks of a small lake. 

Then there came a terrible storm. Great 
waves came sweeping up the river from the 
North Sea. Soon the pretty river became a 
broad lake, the little lake changed to an angry 
sea, and spread out its great waves. In a 
few hours farms, meadows, villages, all were 
gone, and only the waters of the great Zuyder 
Zee marked the place where once they stood. 


16 


LITTLE JAN 


Jan is a brave little fellow, but the great sea 
almost frightens him when he remembers 
what it has done. But the beating of the 
waves against the dyke is not the only sound 
he hears. 

Behind him there is a creak, rattle, creak, 
and, turning, he looks down upon the land on 
the other side of the dyke. Creak, rattle, 
creak; there stand the great windmills yonder 
in rows, like ranks of soldiers, and then alone 
here and there, like giant sentinels on guard. 

The great clumsy windmills, with their long 
brown arms whirling in the wind, steadily 
fight the creeping waters ; for as fast as the 
little sloots (ditches) fill with water, the stout 
windmills pump it into the canals, and so back 
again into the sea. 

And Jan, looking at the strong dykes and 
busy windmills, feels safe, and thinks, after 


LITTLE JAN 


17 


all, there is no land so good or beautiful as 
his own dear, damp “ Land of Windmills ” — 
brave little Holland. 

Then he knows that all along the dyke the 
water-staat ( water guards ) are watching day 
and night, and at the first sound of their 
clanging bells, every man within sound of 
them will come running to help stop the 
leak and save their homes from being swept 
away. 

Then they bring great mats of straw, and 
press them close down in the crevice where 
the water trickles through, and this keeps the 
water out until the leak is mended. Now, 
who but a Dutchman would think of using 
straw to keep out water? But it always stops 
the leak. 

If Jan should see a small stream of water 
creeping through the dyke upon the fields and 


18 


LITTLE JAN 


farms below, do you suppose he would be 
frightened and run away? 

No, indeed ! As soon as a Dutch boy can 
understand anything, he is told about the 
great seas that are ever trying to break 
through the dykes and destroy his native land. 

He knows just where the danger lies, and 
just what to do if he should find a leak in the 
dyke. 

He would give the alarm if he had time, 
and could make any one hear, and then he 
would take his cap or his thick jacket and 
stuff it into the hole, keeping the water back 
until help could come. 

Jan had often heard the story of little Peter, 
who once saw a small stream of water creep- 
ing through the dyke, drop by drop. 

There was no one in sight, and the stream 
was growing larger, oh, so fast ! so he pushed 


LITTLE JAN 


19 


his hand and arm into the hole and held the 
water back. 

Then he called and called, but no one heard. 
It was growing dark, and no one came; still 
he did not dare take away his arm, for he 
knew that before he could run home and get 
help, the water would break a great hole in 
the dyke, and come rushing over the land. 

So all night long he sat there, holding back 
the water with his little arm, that began to 
ache and feel as though it was frozen fast to 
the dyke. 

Still he would not give up. He had too 
much Dutch grit to do that. He tried again 
to call some one ; but at last he knew nothing 
more. 

The watchman found him lying there, in the 
morning sunlight, with his arm still holding 
back the terrible water. One of the watchmen 


20 


LITTLE JAN 


carried him home, while the others mended 
the dyke. 

His mother had been wondering where he 
could have stayed all night , and now she 
thought he was dead, he lay so still in the 
watchman’s arms. But the watchman cried, 
“Give thanks to God for so brave, a son ! He 
has saved our land, and God has saved his 
life! ” 

“Tis many a year since then; but still, 
When the sea roars like a flood, 

Their boys are taught what a boy can do, 
Who is brave, and true, and good ; 

For every man in that country 
Takes his son by the hand 
And tells him of little Peter, 

Whose courage saved the land.” 

Little Jan thinks of this story, and wonders 
if he could be so brave. He feels sure he 
would try hard to do as well as little Peter did. 


LITTLE JAN 


21 


Then he hears his mother calling him, and 
turns to go down to the cottage. He stops a 
minute to look into the stork’s nest on the 
roof. He is very glad the storks built their 
nest there — for it is great luck to have a 
stork’s nest on your roof — and he has been 
watching every day for a week, hoping to see 
the baby storks before his sister Katrine sees 
them ; but his mother calls him again, and he 
thinks it time to hurry. 

Thump, thump! His wooden shoes {klom- 
pen) make noise enough to let them know he 
is coming. Such funny shoes: cut out of a 
solid piece of wood, and turned up at the toes, 
they look like a small canoe; but our odd 
little Dutch boy never has to stop to put 
on rubbers, and he never has wet feet. 

His mother sends him to drive the geese 
from the garden ; they are trying to eat up all 


22 


LITTLE JAN 


the kraut ( cabbage ). Jan starts after them 
with a great piece of broodje (bread) in his 
hands ; for the little Dutch boy comes home 
from school just as hungry as the boys of any 
other land. 

The geese follow him, stretching up their 
long necks for a piece of broodje , too. 

Mevrouw Van Paalen is very proud of her 
flock of geese, and of the fat feather-beds and 
pillows made from their snowy feathers. 

Would you like to go into the cottage with 
Jan and Katrine? Then you must slip off 
your shoes outside the door, as they do, and 
go in with only stockings on your feet; for the 
Dutch klompen are always left outside ; it 
would never do to track dirt over the clean 
floors. 

Now, will you sit down upon one of these 
wooden stools and look around you? Yonder, 


LITTLE JAN 


23 


in a niche built in the wall, is the bed: both 
bed and pillows covered with silk, gay with 
embroidery. Such a high bed ! the little 
Dutch children must need a step-ladder when 
they go to bed, and if one should chance to 
fall out — but Dutch children are too well- 
behaved to ever fall out of bed. 

On one side of the bed is an odd rack filled 
with silver spoons ; above it hangs a mirror, 
and all around the walls are beautiful china 
plates, brought from China and Japan many 
years ago, when the ships of brave, honest 
Holland were the only ones allowed to enter 
the harbors of China and Japan. 

Upon the other side of the bed hangs a 
Dutch clock, its long weights reaching nearly 
to the floor. On the other side of the room is 
the great fireplace, with an oven built in the 
side of the chimney. 


/ 



A DUTCH INTERIOR 


24 



LITTLE JAN 


25 


Beside the fire you may see a row of 
wooden shoes, set to dry after a good scrub- 
bing with soap and water, or if the sun is 
shining perhaps they will be hung upon sticks 
set in the ground beside the door — very use- 
ful trees, with wooden shoes growing ready 
made upon them. 

After Jan drives the geese into their pen 
and shuts them in, he goes to find Katrine. 
He wants her to come out on the dyke and 
watch the boats sailing by ; but Katrine and 
her little friend Liesel are down by the canal 
washing jars and wooden bowls. 

She calls Jan to come and help her, and he 
takes a basket of dishes and carries them 
slowly to the cottage. 

Jan’s father, Mynheer Van Paalen, is a boat- 
man. Perhaps that is why Jan loves the boats 
and the water so well ; but, after all, he could 


26 


LITTLE JAN 



not be a Dutchman and not love water, when 
he really has to live in it most of the time. 
Mynheer has a number of boats, pakshuiten 


PASSENGER BOATS 

(freight boats), which carry coal, peat, vege- 
tables — anything that is usually carried in a 
wagon or cart, and trekshuiten ( draw boats ), 
a passenger boat, sometimes drawn through 



LITTLE JAN 


27 



the canals by a man who walks along the tow- 
path, with a rope fastened across his chest. 


FREIGHT BOATS 

When there is no tow-path, the boats are 
pushed with a great oar, or perhaps a small 
sail helps them on when the wind is blowing. 


28 


LITTLE JAN 


Mevrouw often goes to the city with a boat- 
load of vegetables, which she sells from door 
to door, just as the market wagons pass 
through our cities; for the smaller canals, or 
ditches (sloots), run down close to the doors of 
many Dutch houses. 

But, best of all, Jan loves to watch the fish- 
ing boats (the smakschepen ). Out upon the 
Zuyder Zee, or perhaps venturing away out 
upon the great North Sea, Jan sees them 
dancing over the waves, their white sails 
shining in the sun ; and he wonders that the 
wives of the fishermen should cry and cover 
their faces as the boats pass out of sight. 

Of course, there is danger. He remembers 
when the sad news came about Dirk’s father, 
whose boat was swept far out to sea in a 
storm, and only pieces of the wreck were 
washed ashore along the dunes. 


LITTLE JAN 


29 


But he tells little Katrine that men never 
fear the danger. Who could bring in the 
great boatloads of herring, cod, and haddock, 
if men were afraid of the sea? 

“When I am a man, Katrine,” he says, “you 
can stand here upon the dunes and watch my 
boat sail far out over the great sea, and I will 
bring in the finest catch of herring ever seen 
on the coast.” 

“And perhaps be wrecked, and never come 
home again,” said little Katrine, ready to cry. 

“Thou art a boaster, Jan,” said his mother; 
“ it would be a different story you would tell 
if ever you were shipwrecked ; but run now, 
and see if the father is coming.” 

Away ran little Jan; but his thoughts were 
only of the great sea and the fishing boats. 

That night his father told him stories of the 
sea, and of the brave fishermen who go out in 


30 


LITTLE JAN 


their boats, with great nets, and bring home 
loads of fishes for the markets of the world. 

He told him how, years ago, when there 
were no swift steamers nor refrigerator cars to 
carry the fresh fish to other markets, a Dutch- 
man, named William Buckles, found a way to 
cure and pickle herring; then they could be 
kept a long time and sent to any place. 

Now, the herring fisheries of Holland were 
the best in the world, and the Dutch fishermen 
could catch more fish than any others. So, 
after they had learned to pickle them, and 
send them to other countries, the great fish- 
markets brought many dollars to help fill the 
pockets of the Dutchmens wide trousers, and 
if the pockets were made as wide as the 
trousers, it must have taken a great many 
dollars to fill them. 

There is a little boy who sometimes plays 


LITTLE JAN 


31 


with Jan, down by the wharf, who was born in 
a house-boat, and has always lived there. 
There is a cosy little house built in the boat; 
there are white curtains at the shining win- 
dows, gay flowers are growing in pots and 
boxes, just as bright and thrifty as upon the 
land, and everything in the boat looks clean 
and shining as only a good Dutch housewife 
can make it. 

Often these house-boats go far away through 
the canals and great rivers into Belgium and 
Germany, for the great German river, the 
wonderful Rhine, that starts among the ice 
mountains and glaciers of Switzerland, comes 
wandering through the southern part of Hol- 
land, as if it had lost its way, and did not 
know how to empty its waters into the North 
Sea. 

At last, after dividing itself into many 


32 


LITTLE JAN 


streams, and making the Dutch a great deal 
of hard work keeping it out of their meadows, 
and being walled in between dykes to keep it 
from being entirely lost, it pours its waters 
into the North Sea. 

Down these rivers into Germany go the 
house-boats, selling cheese, pickled herring, 
woolen stockings and wooden shoes, and 
bringing back many things not to be found in 
their native land. 

All day they float slowly along through 
rivers, canals, and wide ditches — passing vil- 
lages, cities, palaces, and pleasant farmhouses 
with wide, green meadows around them, where 
the pretty black and white cattle, standing in 
the water or eating the tall, sweet grasses, can 
be seen on either side. 

The Dutch are very fond of their pretty, 
spotted cows. Sometimes they keep them in 


LITTLE JAN 


33 


a part of their houses, when the weather is 
very cold, and even tie bows of pretty blue 
ribbon on their tails. 

All day, whether the sun is shining, or 
whether it is raining — and there are not many 
days in summer when it doesn’t rain, at least, 
one good shower — and all night, when the 
stars are shining and the whole country seems 
sleeping, the boats are passing up and down 
the rivers and broad canals, while the vrouw 
and the little ones are sleeping in the tiny 
house, just as sound as you sleep in your own 
little beds. 

How Jan longs to go traveling into those 
other countries lying so near his own ! 

Jans home is a pleasant cottage in the little 
village of Brock, near the great, beautiful city 
of Amsterdam. It has queer gables, like steps, 
and a sloot runs right in front of the door. 


34 


LITTLE JAN 


Brock is called the cleanest place in the 
world. Indeed, all Holland looks as though 
it was scrubbed, swept, and dusted every 
morning. 

There is so much water lying around, the 
Dutch women seem to think they must make 
use of it some way, and every doorstep is 
snowy white, and all the kettles and pans, 
even the bricks around the fireplace, are 
polished until you can see. your face in them. 

The brass door-knobs glisten in the sun- 
shine, and the flower-beds — how bright the 
blossoms look ! like silken banners waving in 
the sun. 

North of the pretty village where Jan lives, 
and built along the Zuyder Zee, are the towns 
of Edam, Hoorn, and Enkhuizen, and these 
are the great cheese markets of Holland. 

Mynheer Van Paalen goes many times dur- 


LITTLE JAN 


35 



ing the summer to these cities in his great 
barge, or freight-boat, and brings to the city of 
Amsterdam loads of cheeses. Jan is very 
glad to go with his father, and he is a very 


CHEESE MARKET AT HOORN 

proud little boy when he is allowed to help 
with the boat. 

Between the North Sea and the Zuyder Zee 
are some of the most fertile poldars — meadows 



36 


LITTLE JAN 


and farms that once were lakes and marshes — 
in all Holland. 

From these fertile farms come the farmers, 
in boats and strange looking carts, bringing 
their cheeses to the great markets at Hoorn 
and Edam. 

There, upon the pavements in front of the 
Weigh House, you may see piles and piles of 
cheeses. Each cheese has a cover of red or 
yellow cloth, and they look like great piles of 
gay cannon balls; and as the markets of Hoorn 
and Edam sell nearly twelve million cheeses 
every season, there are a good many piles of 
these odd cannon balls. 

Mynheer Van Paalen walks around the 
great market-place, talking with the farmers, 
asking the price of their cheeses, and how 
many they have to sell. 

When he finds a good bargain, and agrees 


LITTLE JAN 


37 


to take the cheese, he and the farmer strike 
their hands together. That binds the bargain. 
Neither one can back out now. 

Then two men come with such an odd 
wheelbarrow: a wheelbarrow without wheels, 
but with handles at both ends. That is 
another Dutch oddity. 

The farmer piles the cheeses into the queer 
wheelbarrow, and they all go into the Weigh 
House to see them weighed. 

Here are yellow, red, and white scales. 
Mynheers cheeses are covered with yellow 
cloth, and he must have them weighed on the 
yellow scales. 

When the cheeses are all in the boat, Myn- 
heer Van Paalen, the farmer, and little Jan 
will go to the kaffy-huis (coffee house) for 
lunch. They will have a big cup of strong 
coffee, a great sandwich of broodje met vleesch 


38 


LITTLE JAN 


( bread and meat ), and a slice of Edam 
ham. 

Hoorn is a quiet old town, built many years 
ago, and with many fine old buildings. The 
state college is here, and you may see the 
coat-of-arms of England on the front of the 
building. Jan would be proud to tell you 
why it is there. 

More than two hundred years ago, when 
Van Tromp, the great Dutch Admiral, was 
sweeping the English ships from the seas, and 
even sailed up the Thames River, making the 
English tremble lest he should destroy Lon- 
don, an English ship was captured, and this 
coat-of-arms taken from her, and placed upon 
the State College — a lesson in bravery to the 
young Dutchmen. 

After their boat is filled with cheeses, Jans 
father starts for the market at Amsterdam. 


LITTLE JAN 


39 


From there the cheeses will be sent in great 
ships, all over the world. When their boat 
leaves Hoorn, it must pass the old water-gate, 



THE WATER GATE, HOORM 


with its strong tower, which was built more 
than three hundred years ago, to defend the 
city against her enemies. 



40 


LITTLE JAN 


In those days Hoorn was a great city. Into 
her grand harbor came the ships of all nations. 
Spanish cannon balls left their marks upon 
the walls of the city, and the great water-gate. 

Here, too, four Dutch war-ships captured 
five Spanish ships, and their commander, 
Count Bossu, was kept a prisoner of war for 
three years. In the Museum Jan saw the 
silver drinking cup, which Count Bossu used 
more than three hundred years ago. 

It was in Hoorn that William Schouten, a 
hardy old Dutch sailor, was born. It was he, 
who, in 1616, first sailed around the southern 
point of South America, and named that point 
of land Cape Hoorn, in honor of his birth- 
place. 

Here, also, Abel Janzoon Tasman, another 
brave Dutch sailor, was born. Sailing in his 
stout, slow-going, old-fashioned Dutch ship, 


LITTLE JAN 


41 


through the waters of the great Pacific, he dis- 
covered the islands of New Zealand and 
Tasmania. 

No wonder the little Dutch boys love the 
water, and long to be sailors ; for wherever 
there is water upon this wide world deep 
enough to sail a boat, the Dutchmen have 
been among the first to sail over it. 

At last their boat comes into the harbor of 
Amsterdam, and Jan’s round blue eyes are 
kept busy watching the great ships from far- 
off lands, lying at anchor in the peaceful har- 
bor, or busy l'oading and unloading their 
cargoes. 

Here and there are noisy little steam tugs, 
towing a line of barges across the harbor. 

But the noise of the steam whistles, the 
shouts of the sailors, the rattling of chains as 
great bales and boxes are loaded, or unloaded, 


42 


LITTLE JAN 



the creak of windmills, and over all, the roar 
and rush of the great city, make music for 
little Jan, and he longs to be a man and take 
his place in the busy world. 


SHIPPING, AMSTERDAM 

The building with the tower is the new 
market, and here can be found almost every- 
thing that money buys. Here, in little stalls 
covered with bright awnings, side by side, the 



LITTLE JAN 


43 


market women sell fruits and laces, flowers 
and coarse woolen stockings, lovely embroi- 
deries and solid heads of Filder kraut. 

Here, hand-carts are drawn up along the 
walks, with vegetables, fruit, cheeses, loaves of 
broodje , or pans of kaneel koekjes (cinnamon 
cakes) for sale, and here are pans, cups, a whole 
stock of tin ware, in a pile upon the pavement. 
Jan finds something fine every time he visits 
the market, and if he likes best to spend his 
pennies where the good vrouw sells cinnamon 
cakes, why he is very much like other boys, 
after all. 

The book stall is another place which inter- 
ests Jan. Your Dutchman maybe rather slow, 
and just a little behind the times in some things, 
but he loves his books and papers, and takes a 
great interest in the doings of the whole world. 

Here at the book stall two little Dutch maids 



44 


NEW MARKET PLACE, AMSTERDAM 






LITTLE JA.N 


45 


are buying a book, on their way home from 
school. Their yellow braids are tucked up 
under snow-white caps, and their aprons and 
little shawls are as white as their caps. 

Sometimes Mynheer Van Paalen does not 
sell his cheeses at the Market, but takes his boat 
up the Arnstel River among the great ware- 
houses, where the cheeses are packed ready to 
ship to other lands. 

It was from this great Arnstel River, and a 
dam built across it, that the beautiful city of 
Amsterdam took its name. 

Nearly seven hundred years ago, KingGys- 
brecht II. built a dam nearly across the Arnstel 
River, and built himself a castle upon the dam. 
From this has grown the great, beautiful city 
of Amsterdam, with its ninety islands, its four 
hundred bridges, and as many canals. 

It is a city built upon the water, for the land 


46 


LITTLE JAN 



AN AMSTERDAM BOOKSTALL 


was really nothing but a bog of peat — a kind 
of moss — and into this were driven thousands 


of piles — long timbers — then clay and sand 
were brought in boats and filled in, and to-day 



LITTLE JA.N 


47 


the great city stands there, a monument to 
Dutch grit and perseverance. But the piles, 
though stout and strong, sometimes settled in 
the mud and water, and scarcely a building in 
Amsterdam stands upright to-day. Every one 
leans this way or that way, and Jan sometimes 
wonders if they will soon tumble completely 
over. But some of them have been standing 
in just that way for many years, and the 
people seem to think it all right. Perhaps 
that is another notion of these odd people. 

Another place Jan would like to show you is 
the great Rijks Museum, built beside the Sin- 
gel gracht, the great canal nearly seven miles 
long, which was once the boundary of the city, 
but is nearer the center now. In this museum 
are many beautiful pictures, painted by Rem- 
brandt, Jan Steen, Frans Hals, and other great 
Dutch artists. 



r 


48 


RIVER AMSTEL, AMSTERDAM 





LITTLE JAN 


49 


Even the little children are proud of their 
wonderful picture galleries and can tell you 
about their great painters. All the streets and 
canals around the museum are named after 
most noted painters ; and a statue of Rembrandt 
stands not far from it. 

Near the center of the city is the large peak 
called the Plantation, and upon one side of it 
stands the palace, one of the homes of Queen 
Wilhelmina, the “girl king” of Holland. 

This is the first time since the country of 
Holland rose from the water and marshes, that 
a woman has been its ruler. The Dutch do not 
like to change their ways, and so their High 
Court decreed that all national business must 
be done in the name of “ King Wilhelmina.” 

Jan has seen her driving through the streets 
with her mother, the former Queen Regent, and 
as he is a true-hearted, loyal little Dutch boy, 



STATUE OF REMBRANDT, AMSTERDAM 


50 




LITTLE JAN 


51 


he thinks his young Queen the loveliest girl in 
the world. Sometimes Mynheer Van Paalen 
takes a part of his boat load down to that 
part of the great city, called the Jews’ quarter. 

Here are nearly fifty thousand Jews, almost 
a town of themselves. They have a synagogue 
here, and schools of their own. 

You know Holland has always been a shelter 
and home for the persecuted and ill-treated. 
Here came many of the Huguenots, driven from 
France by the Catholics ; here the Pilgrims 
found refuge and safety, before sailing for the 
New World ; and the Jews, driven from land to 
land, never welcomed, always despised and 
often abused, have for many years, found a safe 
dwelling-place among the kindly Hollanders. 

The Jews are always traders or merchants. 
They will find a sale for almost anything and 
everything. 


52 


LITTLE JAN 



Here is a dealer in old clothing, and another 
with fruits and vegetables; and close beside 
one who is selling beautiful silks and laces, 


KING’S PALACE, AMSTERDAM 

stands a ragged fish pedler selling salt fish 
from an open tub. 

Not far from the Jews’ Quarter, and back of 
the Market Place is St. Anthony’s Gate, which 



LITTLE JAN 


53 


was once a part of the city wall. That was 
many, many years ago, when Holland fought 
foes on land, as well as foes on the sea. For 
more than four hundred years its towers have 
looked down upon the busy scene, and though 
it no longer guards the outer walls of a small 
city, but stands near the center of a very large 
one, it still remains strong and beautiful, a 
monument of labor and courage. 

Behind it is the fish-market of Amsterdam. 
All the great cities of Holland have their fish- 
markets ; and very important places they are, 
though always very ill-smelling places. 

Again their boat passes through the pleasant 
canals, where fine houses stand on either side. 
The quiet Princes canal (Prinsen grachf) is one 
of the most beautiful of these. Sometimes 
their boat glides under the arches of quaint 
old bridges, then in the shade of linden and 


54 


LITTLE JAN 



willow trees planted along the canal, and then 
into the bright sunlight, past churches with 
lofty spires and beautiful stained glass windows 
flashing in the light. 


AMSTERDAM JEW QUARTER 

The red roofs, with their odd gables, the crys- 
tal windows, shining in the sun and reflected 
in the waters of the canals, the green trees, the 
cool shadows under the bridges, make lovely 
pictures to little Jan ; and he thinks it is not to 


LITTLE JAN 


55 


be wondered at that so many of his countrymen 
have been great painters. 

Sometimes when walking through the mar- 
ket, or along the streets, Jan meets little girls 
dressed in black and red, or a boy with his coat 
half red and half black, with one black shoe, 
and one red one. This is another odd Dutch 
custom. Jan could tell you all about it. 

Three hundred years ago, a good lady named 
ITaasje Claas, gave seven houses in Amster- 
dam, to be homes for orphan children forever 
after. Now there are over one hundred houses 
for orphan homes in the city, and all the chil- 
dren wear the queer red and black dress. 

Another strange thing in this land of odd 
ways, is the diamond factory. 

In no other country in the world do the 
people build great factories to make diamonds; 
but of course they do not make the costly stone. 


56 


LITTLE JAN 



It is only sent there to be cut and polished 
ready for its golden setting. 

It is very difficult work to grind and polish 
these precious stones, so that they may flash 
and glitter in perfect beauty. 


ST. ANTHONY’S GATE 

It is very slow work, too, and perhaps none 
but the Dutch would have patience enough to 
work so slowly. 

Most of the diamonds found, are sent to 


LITTLE JAN 


57 


Holland, to be cut and polished. The Jews do 
a great deal of this work. The diamonds are 
slowly cut into shape by hand, using another 
diamond to cut with. Then they are polished 
upon an iron wheel, covered with oil and dia- 
mond-dust which spins round two thousand 
times a minute. The great Koh-i-noor, the 
largest diamond in the world, was polished in 
this wonderful factory. 

Sometimes Jan’s father and mother go to 
church in Amsterdam. Jan, like a great many 
little boys, finds it rather hard to keep still 
during the long sermon : and I am afraid he 
looks at the beautiful pulpit oftener than he 
does at the Dominie who is preaching. It is 
such a beautiful pulpit, with its delicate carving 
and wonderful pictures, that Jan never tires 
looking at it. 

On the other side of the church is the tomb 


58 


LITTLE JAN 


of Admiral De Ruyter, who commanded a ship 
under Admiral Van Tromp in the great war 
between Holland and Great Britain, in which 
the Dutch ships drove the English from their 



PRINCE’S CANAL, AMSTERDAM 


seas, and followed them into the English 
Channel. Then Van Tromp sailed proudly 
home with a great broom tied to the mast of 
his ship — a saucy boast, that he had swept the 
seas of his enemies. 


LITTLE JAN 


59 


How could a little Dutch boy, with the 
tomb of De Ruyter before him, help dreaming 
of those glorious days of old? If he missed 
hearing the sermon, he learned a lesson of cour- 
age and patriotism. 

Katrine does not like to go to church in win- 
ter time ; and you would not wonder at that, if 
you were to attend once in cold weather. There 
are no cushioned seats, no carpets on the floor, 
no great furnace, or steam radiators to warm 
the room. Just bare wooden benches, cold 
floors, made of brick or stone, and no fires any- 
where. Jan and Katrine would go home with 
frozen toes, were it not for the little tin voet 
stoof (foot stove) filled with charcoal, which 
little boys carry round, and distribute among 
the people. 

Mevrouw Van Paalen carries her voet stoof 
with her when she goes to church ; it is just as 


60 


LITTLE JAN 


necessary as the hymnbook which she carries 
in the other hand. 

That is another queer Dutch fashion. 



ORPHAN CHILDREN 


Sometimes Mynheer Van Paalen goes to 
Alkmaar for a load of cheeses. Alkmaar 
means “ all sea,” and years and years ago, where 


LITTLE JAN 


61 


the farms and meadows, and even the city 
itself, stand, was all lakes and marshes. This 
is another great cheese market, and, like all 
Holland cities, it has many old buildings to 
remind its people of their glorious past 
history. 

The Weigh House, the Town Hall, and the 
old Church of St. Lawrence looked down upon 
fierce battles and grand victories, more than 
three hundred years ago. For it was here the 
terrible battle was fought, that turned the tide 
of war against the cruel Spaniards and began 
the freedom of Holland. 

The well-trained soldiers of Spain had con- 
quered all the southern part of Holland. All 
the great cities had fallen into their hands. 
Here upon the little bank of earth they had 
rescued from the sea, the brave Dutchmen 
made a last fight for freedom. 


62 


LITTLE JAN 


The Spanish army numbered sixteen thou- 
sand soldiers. In Alkmaar there were eight 
hundred soldiers and twelve citizens. 

No wonder the Spanish expected an easy 
victory. “ When I take Alkmaar,” said the 
Duke of Alva, the Spanish commander, “ I will 
not leave a single creature alive.” This Duke 
of Alva was perhaps the most cruel monster 
that ever lived. 

Now what did the little Holland army think 
about the coming battle? Their commander, 
William the Silent, said : “ Notwithstanding it 
has pleased God Almighty to allow our other 
cities to be taken, shall we therefore believe 
that the strong arm of the Lord has grown 
weaker? No! We have entered into a close 
alliance with the King of Kings, and I truly 
believe that all who put their trust in Him shall 
be saved by His Almighty hand. The God of 


LITTLE JAN 


63 


Armies will raise up armies for us to do battle 
with his enemies and ours.” 

On September 18, 1573, the battle began. 

Day after day they fought, the little Dutch 
army growing smaller and smaller, but the 
Spanish army losing many more. The women 
and children, unscared by the bullets flying 
around, carried powder and balls, food and 
water, to the brave men standing at their posts 
inside the city walls. 

Nearly a month passed in this way. Then 
the Dutch, seeing they could hold out no longer, 
prepared to cut the dykes, and let the great sea 
sweep away the town, the people and the Span- 
ish Army, rather than let the cruel Spaniards 
capture the city. 

But the Spanish Commander found out that 
the Dutch were cutting the dykes, and knowing 
this meant death to them all, he at once 


Cl 


LITTLE JAtt 


marched away with his whole army. There is 
a statue in one of the streets of Alkmaar in 
memory of this battle. 

In the museum of the Town Hall at Alk- 
maar, Jan has seen many relics of the famous 
siege. Spanish pikes, cannon balls, old helmets 
and swords, all help to tell the story, and keep 
alive the memory of those far-off autumn days, 
when two thousand men of Alkmaar conquered 
sixteen thousand soldiers of Spain. 

Sailing from Alkmaar back to Amsterdam, 
all boats must pass through the great locks at 
Zaandam. Passing along the waters of the 
great canal and the Zaan River, Jan sees more 
windmills, than in any part of Holland; and 
besides pumping water from the many sloots 
into the great canal, these busy windmills are 
sawing into lumber the great logs brought from 
the forests of Germany and Belgium. 


LITTLE JAN 


65 


All along the canal, from Zaandam to Alk- 
maar, are pretty little villages and comfortable 
looking houses, with trim, well-kept gardens 
filled with gay flowers, around them. 



WINDMILLS AND CANAL, ZAANDAM 


There are also pretty little zomerhuisen 
(summer houses) standing in the gardens, with 
tiny sloots and rustic bridges around them. 
Ducks, geese, frogs, waterbugs and dragon-flies 
everywhere, and the rosy-cheeked children can 


66 


LITTLE JAN 


go fishing from the door or window of the 
zomerhuisen. 

Where do you suppose the Japanese people 
got their love of lakes, and canals, and wind- 
mills, and bridges, and boats, and fish-markets, 
and wooden shoes, and gay flower-gardens and 
house-boats ? They have them all. Did they 
learn them of the Dutch sailors who visited 
Japan, and traded with those strange, proud, 
little people long before any other nation was 
allowed to visit them ? 

The two oddest nations of the world seem to 
be much alike in many ways. 

Not far from Amsterdam stands the old city 
of Haarlem, and to the markets of this city 
comes Mynheer Van Paalen with his boat-load 
of cheeses; and his little Jan with him as usual. 

There are so many wonderful things to be 
seen in Harlem Jan could never tell you of 


LITTLE JAN 


67 


them all. There are many quaint old houses, 
built hundreds of years ago. Here stands the 
Town Hall. It was once a Palace, and has 
seen many changes in the old city, since that 
time. Not far away stands Fleisher Hall, 
almost as old, and with beautiful gables, and 
dormer windows, and ornamented with heads 
of cattle carved in stone. 

Best of all, Jan likes the old church, Groote 
Kerk (great church). Its great arches and 
columns of sandstone have stood for many 
years, and seen many generations of little chil- 
dren baptized at its altar. Its beautiful organ 
has played happy wedding music for them 
while its bells chimed merrily, and again the 
bells have tolled, and the organ played a funeral 
hymn for the same little ones, now grown old 
and passing into the other world. 

That great, beautiful organ, built more than 


68 


LITTLE JAN 


one hundred years ago — everything in Holland, 
except the people, seems to be more than one 
hundred years old — and for many years the 
largest organ in the world, it still fills the great 
old church with wonderful music. 

Jan thinks it has many voices. He can hear 
the crash of thunder, the roar of the winds, the 
rippling waters in the canals, and the dashing 
of the waves of the great North Sea, against 
the dykes and dunes. 

Then sometimes it plays softly, as low and 
sweet as his mothers voice singing to the baby 
in its wooden cradle. Oh, Jan thinks, there is 
nothing so grand, no music so sweet in the 
world, as the old organ at Haarlem. 

And then the tulips ! Whoever thinks of 
Holland, without thinking of tulips? More 
than two thousand varieties grow right in 
the great gardens of Holland. What a sight 


LITTLE JAN 


69 


when they are in bloom ! Row upon row of 
gay blossoms nodding their bright heads in the 
sunshine. They are named tulips from tulipa, 
meaning turban, or Turks cap. Do you think 
they look like turbans? From Haarlem, great 
boxes of the brown bulbs, each with a shin- 
ing silken flower hidden in its heart, are sent 
to all the markets of the world. 

Once, many years ago, there was such a craze 
for tulips in Holland that new kinds were sold 
for hundreds of dollars. As much as five 
thousand dollars was sometimes paid for one 
tulip bulb. 

But it has not always been bright sunshine 
and gay flowers in Haarlem. 

The story of the siege of Haarlem by the 
Spaniards three hundred years ago, is a terrible 
one. Again and again, the brave Dutch 
soldiers drove back the Spaniards, but again 


70 


LITTLE JAN 


and again they attacked the city. Sometimes 
the Dutch would feel sure of victory, then 
Spain would send thousands of new soldiers, 
and the tired Dutchmen would have to fight 
their battles over again. There was one battle 
won by the Dutch that was different from any 
battle ever fought. 

Out in the harbor some good, stout, Dutch 
ships were frozen fast in the ice. The Spanish 
commander sent a body of soldiers to take 
these ships. The soldiers would have to march 
two or three miles over the rough, slippery ice, 
to reach these ships. 

Soon they came marching along, slipping 
and sliding at every step, scarcely able to stand 
up; for you know Spain is a much warmer 
country than Holland, and her soldiers were 
not used to such marching as that. 

Suddenly, from trenches dug in the ice, 


LITTLE JAN 


71 


sprang another army which came swiftly toward 
the Spanish. The slippery ice did not trouble 
these soldiers, they seemed almost to fly over 
it, for every man had on a pair of stout Dutch 
skates, and knew right well how to use them. 

On and on they came, shouting down the 
Spaniards without mercy, and very few Span- 
ish soldiers escaped the Dutchmen that time. 
Was not that a strange battle? 

It was a grand victory for the brave Dutch- 
men, but months of terrible suffering, of hun- 
ger and cold, sickness and death came after it. 

If you were to visit the Groote Kerk , with 
Jan, he could show you to-day, a great cannon 
ball, bedded in the walls of that church, and it 
was shot from a Spanish cannon in that ter- 
rible war. 

There is another thing in this church that 
always interests Jan. You know he loves to 


72 


LITTLE JAN 


watch the sea, and all kinds of ships that sail 
on it ; and under one of the beautiful arches in 
the church hang small ships, exactly like the 
great ships built so many hundred years ago. 

There they have been hanging for many 
years. Sails all set and flags flying as if ready 
to start on a long voyage. In a ship like some 
of these, Hendrik Hudson came sailing up our 
beautiful river that bears his name. And in 
such a ship sailed Peter Stuyvesant when he 
left his native country to be governor of New 
Amsterdam, as New York was then called. 

Then Jan could show you another one, like 
the Dutch warship which Admiral Van Tromp 
commanded, when he tied the broom to the 
mast, after driving home the British. 

Now if you will go with Jan to visit the great 
beautiful gardens where the tulips grow, he will 
tell you something wonderful about them. 


LITTLE JAN 


73 


Once upon a time they were great lakes, 
called Hoarlemmar Meer , and their restless 
waters, blown back and forth by the mischiev- 
ous winds, swept away farms, meadows, vil- 
lages, and people. At last, in November, 1836, 
a terrible hurricane from the west drove the 
waters over the land, until they washed the 
walls of Amsterdam. Then in December an- 
other terrible storm came from the north and 
nearly destroyed the city of Leyden. Then 
the people of Holland said, “ We have had 
enough of this. If the lakes will not stay 
where they belong, we will empty them into 
the ocean.” 

This was easy enough to say ; but it was a 
hard thing to do, even for the wonderful water- 
engineers of Holland. First they built a 
broad, high dyke, with a canal thirteen feet 
deep in the center of it, all around these lakes. 


74 


LITTLE JAN 



It took five years to do this, and there were 
twenty square miles of land and water inside 
this dyke when it was finished. 

Now came the task of pumping the water 
from the lakes into the canal. For four years 


THE HAGUE, AMSTERDAM 

three great pumps were kept busy, each one 
pumping one million tons of water every day 
until the lakes were dry. 

Now, farmhouses stand where fishing boats 
once sailed, and little children play in the 


LITTLE JAN 


75 


green meadows where once that terrible 
“ battle on skates ” was fought. 

Jan knows all about these things. He 
reads of them in histories, and his father and 
grandfather often tell him stories of the old 
times when Holland fought nations and seas, 
to keep her own fair meadows. 

Not many miles from Haarlem is another 
city dear to every little Dutch boy : this is the 
capital of his country, The Hague, or ’ Sgraven 
Huge , as the Dutch call it. It is a beautiful 
city, with wide streets and pleasant, shaded 
squares, in one of which stands a statue of 
William the Silent, whom the Dutch people 
still call “ Father William.” 

Another statue, in memory of Hollands 
brave men, stands not far away. This is the 
National Monument. 

Here comes another queer object ! Did 



76 


MILK WAGON 




LITTLE JAN 


77 


you ever see anything like it in this country? 
Jan does not think it so strange; he has seen 
such milk carts in other cities of Holland, and, 
next to a boat, he thinks he would like a cart, 
and a dog to draw it; just such a large dog as 
this one, that has been trained to draw carts 
in the “ dog school ” at Amsterdam. 

Can anything be prettier than the gaily 
painted cart, with the bright brass cans shining 
in the sun ; and the milk-woman, with her 
snow-white cap and her gay plaid shawl, lead- 
ing her dog? 

Soon Jan meets another dog cart, and stops 
to buy — what do suppose? — why, a drink of 
water ! 

Now, isn’t that a strange thing to buy, in a 
country where half the land is water? Hol- 
land is like the ocean, “Water, water, every- 
where, but not a drop to drink.” 


78 


LITTLE JAN 


The western part of Holland is so much 
like a sponge that the salt water from the sea 
is always soaking through, and there can be 
no wells of good water. 

So all the fresh water must be caught in 
cisterns when it rains, or brought from the 
eastern part of the country, where the land is 
higher and farther from the sea. 

One day, when they were in The Hague 
with their market load, Jan’s father went with 
him to the Huis ten Bosch ( House in the 
Woods) which is one of Queen Wilhelmina’s 
homes. There are beautiful shaded walks and 
drives and groves of trees to be seen here; 
and that is something wonderful in Holland, 
where no trees ever grow unless some one 
plants them. 

Then sometimes they go to Scheveningen, 
where a great many people go to enjoy the 


LITTLE JAN 


79 


sea-breezes. There is always a good market 
there, so many people have to be fed at the 
great Gasthuisen ( hotels, guesthouses). 

Here are the great sand dunes that help to 
keep the sea from washing Holland off the 
map. 

In summer time, little children are running 
about, digging in the sands, making little 
dykes and canals, and filling them with water 
from the sea. People are walking up and 
down, watching the ships sailing by, or sitting 
in the tents and queer chairs, made of woven 
willow, with roof and sides, and two little 
windows to look through. Such odd-looking 
chairs, but very comfortable when the winds 
blow hard or the sunshine is too warm. 

There are many other cities in the little 
country of Holland, each with something 
strange and wonderful to look at, and eac 


80 


LITTLE JAN 


with its history of the old days, when battles 
and floods kept everyone busy. Jan has never 
seen them all, though he knows something of 
their history. 

There is Leyden, with its great university; 
the town from which the Pilgrims sailed in 
the Mayflower . 

There is Delft, with its beautiful chinaware, 
its old hall where the first Dutch Parliament 
met, and the church, with the tomb of Father 
William. Not far from the church is the 
doorway through which he was passing when 
he fell, killed by a Spanish assassin. 

Queen Wilhelmina is the only descendant 
left of the Family of Orange, of which Father 
William was the head. That is one reason 
why she is so dear to the people of Holland. 

Another city is Vlaardingen, with its fleets 
f fishing boats, bringing loads of kappeljauws 


LITTLE JAN 


81 


(codfish), haddock, and herring to the great 
markets. 

Then there is Dort, one of the oldest cities 
in Holland, built on an island, that once was 
mainland, until the sea in a fit of rage swept 
off seventy villages, and one hundred thousand 
people. There are many odd old buildings 
along its wide canals, and its busy windmills 
saw into lumber great rafts of logs which have 
floated down the Rhine from Germany. 

The province of Zeeland, in the south of 
Holland, is made up of nine islands, and has 
over three hundred miles of dykes, to keep the 
islands in place. It is only by great care that 
the islands are kept from the sea. It is said 
that in six months, if the dykes were neglected, 
the whole province of Zeeland would be under 
water. 

Along the canal beautiful avenues of trees 


82 


LITTLE JAN 



have been planted ; and all along the roadsides ; 
but they do not look thrifty and strong like the 
trees in our land. Perhaps the winds and salt 
water are too strong for them. 


WATER MILL 

Among the green meadows are pleasant 
farmhouses with such curious doors and win- 
dows. 

Here is one with a dove-cote, or pigeon house, 
on the wall, and vines growing over the roof. 



LITTLE JAN 


83 


Sometimes, when passing along a canal, Jan 
sees a pretty little water-mill almost hidden 
among the willow trees, its wheels turned by 
the waters of a narrow sloot, which empties into 
the canal. 

The people of Holland are proud of their 
town halls. They make them the finest build- 
ings in the country. The old town of Middle- 
burg has the finest. It has more statues, more 
dormer windows, and more steeples than any 
other. And in the great belfry hangs the old 
bell, that for hundreds of years has warned the 
people when an enemy was marching toward 
the city, and still rings out when their oldest 
enemy, the sea, is breaking through the walls 
they have built to shut it out. 

Vure is another old town, with a beautiful 
Town Hall. Its lofty tower can be seen far 
across the country. It has statues and odd 


84 


LITTLE JAN 


gables built like steps going up to the chim- 
neys. Nearly all the houses of Holland have 
gables like this; Jan and Katrine think they 
were built that way, to help Santa Claus reach 
the chimney tops. 

Another beautiful old city in this land of the 
olden times, is Utrecht. Here, more than one 
thousand years ago, the first Christian Church 
in Holland was built The old cathedral tower 
has been standing over six hundred years, and 
was once a part of one of the largest churches 
in Holland; but a terrible storm came, and in 
one night the central part — the nave — of the 
church, was swept away, leaving the tower and 
chapel. It was never rebuilt, and now the 
great tower, 350 feet high, is left alone on one 
side of the street, while the chapel stands on 
the other side. 

A chime of forty-two bells hangs in the old 


LITTLE JAN 


85 


tower and from the upper windows, on a clear 
day, can be seen a great part of the country of 
Holland. 

What wonderful things that old church tower 
has seen in the six hundred years it has been 
watching over Holland ! How many times the 
bells have chimed the passing hours! How 
often it has seen fierce battles and wild floods 
sweep over the land ! 

It has called Roman Catholics to mass within 
its walls, and Protestants to their services. 

It has looked down upon princes, bishops, 
emperors, and kings, as they passed within 
its walls. 

If its bells could speak, what strange, beau- 
tiful, and terrible stories the children of 
Utrecht would hear! 

The canals of Utrecht are different from 
those of other cities in Holland. They have 


86 


LITTLE JAN 


two roadways, one above the other. Along 
the upper roadway are fine shops and hand- 
some buildings ; along the lower are cellars, 
stores, and the dwelling-houses of the poor 
people of the town. 

All these old cities used to have strong 
walls built around them, and no one could get 
into the city except through these gates, which 
could be closed to shut out their enemies. 

Many of these gates are still standing. 
Some were called water-gates, when built 
across a canal or river ; while others were 
gates into the streets, and sometimes a double 
gate closed street and canal. 

Upon the broad, busy Maas River, which, 
like the great Rhine River, comes through 
Germany before it reaches Holland, and not 
far from the shores of the North Sea, stands 
the great city of Rotterdam, to whose markets 


LITTLE JAN 


87 


Mynheer Van Paalen comes often, with his 
boat always filled with something which finds 
a ready sale in the great city. 

It takes a great deal of food to keep the 
people in such large cities from going hungry, 
and, whether Jan’s father has a load of butter 
and cheese, or fruits and vegetables, or fine, 
fat ducks and geese, it makes no difference, he 
can always find some one ready to buy. 

Sometimes he ties his boat to the great 
boompjes (wharf), which fronts the river, and 
leaves Jan to care for the boat while he finds 
some one who wishes to buy his cargo. 

All along this wharf, big streams and ships 
of all kinds are unloading or taking in cargo, 
and Jan, who loves the water and the boats, 
never tires watching them. 

Or, perhaps, they will pass along some of 
the wide, beautiful canals to the great ware- 


LITTLE JAN 


houses in the heart of the city, or along some 
smaller canal whose busy windmills are always 
pumping water into the larger ones. 

Here they may tie their boat to a tree 
beside the canal, and have their dinner in 
some pleasant little hotel or restaurant. 

Rotterdam is a noisy, busy city. Every- 
where there are crowds of people hurrying to 
and fro. Carts rattle over the rough brick or 
stone pavements, the boats and barges move 
swiftly along the wide canals, merry children 
skip along the narrow walks close to the 
water’s edge. All the two hundred thousand 
people living in this great city seem to be out 
and going somewhere. 

By night, the lights flashing from the thou- 
sands of windows, and reflected back from the 
waters of the canal, make it even more 
beautiful. 


LITTLE JAN 


89 


As they pass along some canal, where the 
houses seem to rise out of the water, and their 
boat sends little ripples and waves of light 
from side to side, it seems to Jan, lying half 
asleep in the boat, like a journey through 
fairyland. 

If he were a painter, like Rembrandt, or 
Rubens, or Frans Hals, what pictures he 
would paint of the places and people he has 
seen ! Perhaps a group of Zeeland girls, with 
gold ornaments on their heads and odd bon- 
nets over them. Or a cottage in the meadow, 
with the busy Dutch vrouw winding yarn from 
the hands of a sailor lad. 

Then, passing among the islands along the 
shores of the Zuyder Zee, a cottage with 
women standing at the door, or watching a 
pet lamb in the garden, while Mynheer leans 
against the wall and smokes his pipe ; or, in 


90 


LITTLE JAN 


another doorway, a pretty little maiden, with a 
fish in each chubby hand, which she has 
caught in the canal near by. 



A LITTLE DUTCH GIRL 

But though Jan loves the boats and canals, 
and has such happy days sailing from one 
great city to another with his father, yet he 


LITTLE JAN 


91 


thinks winter the happiest, merriest time of 
all. 

As soon as the shallow ditches are frozen 
over, the children are out to play on the ice. 
As it grows thicker, and the ijsbrekkers ( ice- 
breakers). come out to keep the rivers and 
great canals open for boats, then the fun really 
begins. 

Everybody skates, from the fattest old Myn- 
heer in the town down to the littlest tot who 
goes to school. Doctors with their medicine- 
cases, ministers with Bible and prayer book, 
women with baskets, going to market, boys 
and girls on their way to school with books 
and slates — all on skates. 

And such queer skates! They are large 
and strong, the runners coming out far beyond 
their toes and curving up in great hooks. 
But skates and skaters are the very best in 


92 


LITTLE JAN 


the world, for whatever the Dutch do is well 
done. 

It is a world of ice — the sloots, the canals, 
the rivers, even the great Zuyder Zee, all 
frozen, and shining like silver in the winter 
sunshine. 

Day after day the cold weather lasts, and 
people go visiting each other many miles on 
skates. 

Here are iceboats, swift as the wind itself ; 
or a boy, with sails fastened to his shoulders, 
skating before the wind. Farther on, you will 
see young men and maidens skating in curves 
and circles over ice, rough and smooth, as no 
one but a Dutchman would ever try to skate. 

The ice rings with the steel of the skates, 
and the air rings with merry voices as the 
sober, hardworking Dutch people enjoy their 
winter holidays. 


LITTLE JAN 



have gone to visit their aunt on the eastern 
side of the Zuyder Zee. Katrine cannot skate 
so far, but she can ride in a chair on runners, 


Jan and little Katrine can skate as well as 
the rest. With their father and mother, they 


SKATING BEFORE THE WIND 


94 


LITTLE JAN 


which her father pushes before him as he 
skates along. 

The children’s cousin, Greitje, is always 
glad to see them coming. There is so much 
fun in winter time when there is some one to 
play with! Skating and sliding, and building 
snow-forts and snow-men ; then to run in by 
the warm fire for a lunch of doughnuts or 
cinnamon cookies. 

Jan and Katrine think their aunt the nicest 
woman in Holland, except, of course, their 
mother. She wears such a wonderful head- 
dress, with a lovely lace cap over it! You can 
see it shine ever so far. Katrine wonders if 
she will ever be large enough to wear such a 
lovely headdress. 

With the ice and snow comes Christmas ; 
and isn’t Holland just the place for Santa 
Claus and his reindeer team ? And the chil- 


LITTLE JAN 


95 


dren set their wooden shoes beside the hearth 
where Santa will be sure to see them when he 
comes down the chimney. 

Or, perhaps, they will have a Christmas-tree, 
with plenty of sugar plums and little cakes, 
with a doll for Katrine and a toy boat for Jan. 
And they will have roast goose and strange 
looking Dutch puddings for dinner, with coffee 
and doughnuts, and cheese — what would the 
Dutch do without their cheeses — and every- 
body happy and smiling, just as they should 
be at Christmas time. 

So the winter passes away. Easter comes 
and the children hunt for the rabbits’ nests, 
and find them full of gayly colored eggs, and 
pretty Easter gifts. By and by the grass 
begins to look green along the canals and 
ditches. The days grow longer, and the sun- 
shine warmer; all sorts of queer waterbugs 



96 


LITTLE JAN 


97 


begin to swim in the sloots, the garden is full 
of gay tulips swinging like silken banners in 
the sunshine; the boys go fishing everyday, 
and Jan sails his new boat on the canal. 

Then comes Whitsunday, and the child who 
is up and dressed first, runs to waken the others, 
and sings : 

“ Litilcik, “Lazy loon, 

Slaapzak , Sleepy head, 

Kermispop, Lie abed, 

Stay urn 12 uren op'S Don’t get up till 

noon.” 

It is Katrine who wakes first this time and 
runs so merrily to wake up Jan. 

Soon the storks come back to the nest by 
the chimney, and from the great swamps where 
little babies lie dreaming of angels, until the 
storks come to carry them to their parents, they 
bring a baby brother to little Jan and Katrine. 

How pleased the children are, as they stand 


98 


LITTLE JAN 


by the low wooden cradle, where the new baby 
lies sleeping; and Katrine runs to hang the 
pretty red cushion, trimmed with lace and rib- 
bon, on the door knob, so that all their friends 
may know of their good fortune. If a little 
sister-baby had come to them the cushion would 
have been blue or white. 

After this the children climbed up on the 
dyke and looked down into the storks’ nest. 

“Thank you, Mother Stork, for the little 
brother you brought us,” said Katrine. 

“ Mother Stork,” cried Jan, “are there any 
other babies as nice as ours in the great 
marshes ?” 

But the Mother Stork answered never a 
word. She just stood on one foot, and looked 
wise. 

And so the summer comes again, with boat 
rides, and fishing, its bright sunlight and gay 


LITTLE JAN 


99 


tulip gardens, its terrible storms and danger, 
from the waters, that can look so bright and 
peaceful. Winter comes and goes, with its ice 
and snow, and crowds of merry skaters ; and 
the children are busy with work and school, 
helping father and mother, and playing merry 
games, besides learning many wise and useful 
lessons. 

The years slip away one by one, and soon 
Jan will be grown up, a brave strong Dutch- 
man, loyal to his country and his young queen. 

He is proud of his little country, proud of 
her wonderful history, and the great work she 
has done, proud of her asylums, her schools, 
her great cities, and busy colonies ; her dykes 
and canals; and fertile polders, and most of all, 
her courage, honesty and stout Dutch spirit 
that knows no such word as fail. 


VOCABULARY 


Alkmaar (alk-mar') 
Amsterdam (am'ster-dam) 
Belgium (bel'ji-um) 

De Ruyter (de-rl'ter) 

Edam (e'dam) 

Enkhuizen (epk-hoi'zen) 
Frans Hals (franz bills) 
Hague (hag) 

Haarlem (har'lem) 

Hoorn (horn) 

Huguenots (hu'ge-nots) 
Koh-i-noor (ko'e-nor') 
Leyden (ll'den) 

Maas (mas) 

Rembrandt (rem'brant) 
Rhine (rln) 

Rotterdam (rot'er-dam) 
Scheveningen (ska'ven-ing- 
Schouten (skou'ten) 
Stuyvesant (stl've-sant) 
Tasmania (taz-ma'ni-a) 
Thames (temz) 

Utrecht (u'trekt) 

Zaandam (zand-am') 
Zuyder Zee (zi'der ze) 





































































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